GRGR: "sound-shadow" (when the roaring of the sun stops), 695, 711;
jill
grladams at teleport.com
Thu Sep 14 13:38:37 CDT 2000
Oh hey, if you can get a copy of Peenemunde to Canaveral /Hutzel read it.
It is eerie the things that connect with what TRP wrote in GR to what a
person who was there, Hutzel, reports about it. Both take place in the
eerie chapter of Death of Peenemunde. Sorry if everyone has already talked
about this and I was not paying attention.
The first quote's context is likely to be around February of 1945, during
Germany's basically hopeless losses, and the engineers there listening to
the radio:
"Apparently the Russians had a powerful beamed transmitter and an announcer
completely familiar with German and possessed of quick wit and
intelligence. He would listen to the German newscast and immediately
broadcast his comment back on the same wave length. There was never
anything sophisticated about the interjections. It was simply the voice of
doom. No promises of liberation were offered, only predictions of defeat,
death and destruction.
The German government countered this tactic by having the newscaster read
his broadcast so fast thre was no time for interjections. This was
unpleasant to listen to, but effective, until the Russians began firing
their vocal salvos in between pieces of music or during any other moment of
silence. Eventually, a transmitter was set up which received, amplified and
rebroadcast the Russian message, but phase-shifted half a wave length, thus
canceling out their transmission."
The second quote's context is the recently carpet bombed Peenemunde as
launching spot and the move to Bleicherode, speaking at a time when most of
the operations had been packed up and taken there.
"The last days began to unwind from the dwindling spool. Hartmut and his
family weere now gone, relocated with his unit in Bad Sachsa. I completed
my own plans, finished packing my essential possessions, not too many now,
and eliminated everything else. I waited for instructions.
Subconsciously, I would listen for the distant growl of a test taking place
at P-7, a sound that never came. The uneasy stillness of a death watch had
settled over Peenemunde."
Do these quotes seem to remind anyone else of sound shadow?
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